'Huawei Edges Past Microsoft to Become Third Largest Mobile Phone Vendor'

Microsoft, ever since the acquisition of Nokia, has launched some budget and mid-range Lumia smartphones, apart from some feature phones under the Nokia brand. Unfortunately, none of them were able to generate enough hype among users. This lacklustre performance of the company has led to its slip by one rank in the latest global mobile phone market figures - which include both smartphones and mobile phones.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, Microsoft has lost one spot to Huawei in the mobile phone market in Q2 of this year, promoting the latter to the third position after Samsung and Apple.

The report says that while Microsoft shipped 27.8 million mobile phone units in Q2 this year, Huawei shipped 30.6 million units. Percentage-wise, Microsoft captured 6.4 percent of the market, whereas Huawei got 7 percent of the market share. To bring this in reference, in the same quarter last year, Microsoft shipped nearly double the mobile phone units - 50.3 million (11.8 percent), while Huawei shipped 20.6 million units (4.8 percent).

On the other hand, Samsung and Apple topped the list at first and second ranks respectively. While Samsung shipped 89 million units gaining 20.5 percent market share, Apple sold 47.5 million units gaining 10 percent share in Q2 2015. As compared to Q2 last year, Samsung shipped 95.3 million units (22.3 percent), Apple shipped 35.2 million units (8.2 percent). On fifth position is Xiaomi with 19.8 million units (4.6 percent).

"Huawei shipped 30.6 million mobile phones and captured a record 7 percent market share worldwide in Q2 2015. Huawei is rising fast in all regions of the world, particularly China where its 4G models, such as the Mate7, are proving wildly popular. Huawei has finally overtaken Microsoft to become the world's third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever," said Ken Hyers, Director at Strategy Analytics, in the report.

While Microsoft has not fared well in the market this quarter, its new Windows 10 Mobile might help spur it to recapture market share. Microsoft would be releasing its Windows 10 Mobile later this year, and is tipped to launch it by November. Microsoft also revealed the Lumia smartphones that would be receiving the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade first.